I'm a former librarian, from Singapore. The postings were library-related (mostly). I tended to ramble. As with things in life, my thoughts were incidental (i.e. insignificant). DISCLAIMER - Views expressed here were strictly my own and did not represent the official stand of my ex-employer. But you know that already.

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Learning my way around OS X: Read a book

I received an alert from the NLB email reminder service that this book was due in a few days time, so I decided to post details of the book over at RoughNotes before returning the book.

If you're a Mac newbie like I am (was?) to OS X, I'd recommend you scan through this book, particularly sections 1 to 4.

Look for it at the Computer & IT in the Adult Lending section. Check the NLB Catalogue for item availability (keyword search "mac os x mark chambers").

When I switched on my Mac for the first time, I didn't quite know what I could do with it. Sure, I easily found the toolbar thingy (which I later learnt was called the "Dock") and got some apps running, but I wasn't quite sure what to do once the apps were open.

Having been weaned on Windows, I also instinctively looked for a place where I could "right-click" to get to the Windows Explorer, but I didn't know how to do that either. No right click on the scroll pad. Oh, there wasn't ALT-CTRL-DELETE. Hey, how come the "delete" button works like a "Backspace", and why wasn't there "Backspace" key? How do you close a... er... 'window' for a Mac?

I did find out that I was using the OS X operating system (otherwise known as OS X Tiger). So I went to the library to see if there was something on using OS X. I wasn't quite sure if we had any but aiyah, I should've had more faith -- we did lah. While browsing the shelves, I also discovered there were versions called Leopard and Panther... right, what big cat is after Tiger, I thought.

A Mac is pretty intuitive, I must say, but to a certain extent. Not quite Star Trek "Hello Computer"... (yet).

Eventually I would've figured out how to find my way around the Mac. Or I could've read blog posts for “switchers” like this, this and this (links via Siva). They are pretty good. But the book was more concise and purposefully written. Saved me lots of time (yeah, yeah, this is just a shameless ploy by a librarian to make you borrow a book right? Well don't take my word for it, heh.)

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About Me

A former librarian, emerging as an artist and musician. After 17 years as a librarian in the public service, Ivan decided to become an entrepreneur and co-founded a boutique media studio. Ivan embraces the Creative Commons. The dreamer in him believes that we can change the world, one friend at a time, through creative and social collaboration.